Recollection- Third Book: After Reception
by Bananas102
Summary: Cold. Dark. Pain. Alone.
1. Chapter 1

Cold. Dark. Yelling. Pain. Noise. Rain. Alone. Lost.

He opened his eyes and blinked against the cold rain. He knew he was on the ground. His head ached and he pulled himself to a sitting position, which hurt him even more.

It was dark. Night. He was sitting in ruins and there were a few fires in the wreckage.

He didn't see anyone. He didn't know where he was. He heard yelling in the distance. He was covered in dirt and dust and blood. He was tired. He rose to his feet and stumbled. He hurt all over.

He was lost. He walked away. Where was he?

Why was he there?

Who was he?


	2. Chapter 2

England winced. He was sore and his head was pounding. He coughed, dust falling off of his clothes as he shifted. He realized it was raining. It was night. Then he remembered: Not-Canada blew up the temple with them inside.

He got to his feet. Where was everyone? There were fires here and there but the rain kept them where they were.

He spun around in horror. The whole temple was in ruin. He heard a wheeze and he froze. "Hello?"

"I-Iggy?"

America. England spun around. "America, where are you?"

"Over here."

England squinted through the drops of water and he realized America was under a chunk of wall.

He grabbed the edge and started pulling it off. America cried out and England stopped. "What?"

"D-Don't do t-that."

England bent onto the ground next to America and saw that some sort of metal piece was _in _his side, all the way through and the other side was snagged on the wall piece. Pulling on it made the piece pull at America's insides.

"Bloody hell," he said, grimacing slightly. America gave him a weal smile. "Yup."

England frowned. "No passing out, alright?"

"S-Sure dude."

England couldn't figure out a way to get him out. "I'll be back in a little bit. Don't go to sleep." England pointed a finger at him. "I mean it."

"Uhuh."

"Ugh."

He got off the ground and thunder shook the ground.

England walked a bit before tripping over a lump, which turned out to be Canada. Canada opened his eyes. "Wha-?"

"Canada?"

"Yes."

England sighed in relief. "Oh thank God. Are you alright?"

Canada sat up and looked himself up and down. "Yeah, actually. Huh."

England offered him a hand and Canada took it to be pulled to his feet.

"America's stuck and-"

Canada started walking in the direction England gestured to.

They reached America again. "Why can't you just lift this thing with your absurd strength?"

"Um..m-my arms are s-sort of pinned down."

"That's never stopped you."

"I-I guess I'm j-just tired. What's up, C-Canadia?"

Canada pursed his lips. "I'm trying to rescue you."

America pouted. "The hero doesn't need to be rescued."

"Of course he doesn't."


	3. Chapter 3

"Finl'nd?"

No answer.

"Finl'nd?"

Silence. Sweden was bleeding, but at this point, he was pretty sure he didn't care.

There was the sound of stone falling against each other and Sweden looked around. He saw Finland get up. "Huh? Sweden!" He made his way over and Sweden exhaled in relief. Finland looked at him. "Are you okay."

Sweden nodded. Finland didn't believe him. It was chilly from the rain.

Finland felt light-headed and he was pretty sure his head was bleeding. It was really dark so frankly, he couldn't even tell _where _he was bleeding.

In the distance, a sharp cry echoed over to them. "The others," Finland breathed.

Sweden led the way and had to move some of the rubble in order to get through.

They ended up have to climb up a large pile of ruins. Finland was panting hard by the time they reached the top.

"You okay?"

Finland nodded. "Yeah."

Sweden looked at him for a moment, then nodded, and started climbing his way down.

He jumped down the last three feet to land on the ground. Finland did the same and the impact jarred his skull, making him wince.

"You ok?"

Finland nodded. "Fine." The kept going to find England and Canada trying to get America out from under the rubble. "You guys need help?" They were panting hard. "Yeah." The two grabbed hold of the debris and lifted. It was insanely heavy, but they managed to get if off of the nation below.

America breathed a sigh of relief and Finland's eyes widened as he saw the piece of metal puncturing America side; all the way through. Canada sat America up and America let out a pained hiss.

"Ready?"

England was behind America, ready to pull it out.

America took a deep breath and nodded.

England yanked.

* * *

"Dammit! Come on, wake up! I didn't come all this way for you to give up!"

Norway shook Iceland again. "Come on.." his voice was squeaky and it cracked at the end. Iceland wasn't breathing and his eyes were closed. Suddenly, Iceland gave a shuddering gasp, pulling much needed air into his lungs.

Norway exhaled sharply in relief.

"It's okay," he murmured. "You're going to be fine."

He picked Iceland up gingerly and started walking toward the sound of voices.

* * *

China let out a groan.

He opened his eyes and pulled himself upright.

He gasped as he looked around. "Aiya!"

China looked around, his thoughts racing. Wait. Where was Nihon?

"Aru?" He started walking, which was more difficult.

There was a groan and China saw Not-China getting to his feet.

Not-China looked around with wide eyes. "Aiya!"

Not-China spun around. "Nihon?" He peered through the rain to see someone else laying on the ground. He slowly walked over to find that it was Kurai. "Nihon!" He knelt and felt for a pulse, breathing, anything.

Kurai's face was pale and he looked as though he was merely sleeping.

No pulse. No breathing.

Not-China pulled Kurai onto his lap and just held him.


	4. Chapter 4

Japan was gone. Vanished.

So many countries were dead.

Only a few remained:

Sweden

Finland

China

England

2pEngland

Not-China

America

Canada

Norway

Iceland

Germany

Prussia

Italy

13 countries, and Hannah.

14, if Japan was still alive.

They all stood together.

"What are we going to do?" Canada asked.

Germany sighed. "Who knows?"

"Has anyone made progress with Not-China?"

"China's trying to get him let go."

* * *

"Aru, let him go," China said in the softest, gentlest voice he had. Not-China finally looked at China with tear-filled eyes. "Why him?" Not-China's voice was rough and weak.

"It was his time," China replied. Not-China began to shake and he once more looking down to Kurai's dirt-streaked face. It still looked so much like he was sleeping.

China sighed, his brow creased in sympathy.

He wrapped his arms around Not-China, and the nation simply melted into sobs that shook him.

China knelt in the mud and waited for the tears to run out.

* * *

Everyone was soaked and cold and lost in the dark.

They slowly waked on for a few miles before Prussia yelled, "Hey! Look!" Everyone swiveled their heads to look and everyone sagged in relief.

A road.

* * *

He kept walking, though his feet felt like they were on fire. He had to get somwhere, he was sure of it, but no matter what, he constantly felt like he'd left something behind.

He had found a road awhile ago and had starting walking, and now, in the distance, he thought he saw the shape of a house.

It turned out to be an abandoned barn. He wandered inside. There was a torn saddle on a railing, a broken mirror, and a bucket inside. the ground was hard and cold.

He walked over to the broken mirror.

Short ebony hair, light skin, and chocolate eyes.

But he still didn't know who we was.

Why he was there.

He still didn't know what to do.

* * *

Canada stood up again.

"They're footprints."

"Leading to where?" Germany asked.

"Down the road, I would guess."

They found some sort of barn.

"Shelter," Finland offered.

"Alright. We'll set up came for the night, and move out in the morning."

They walked in. China put up a hand. "Hold up, aru. There's someone over there."

Sure enough, the thin frame of a person was huddled in the corner.

China walked up to the person, with Canada flanking him.

"Aru? Are you alright?"

The person raised their head.

"Japan!"

China knelt down in front of him.

"Are you alright, aru? Are you hurt?"

Japan stared at him.

"Japan, why did you leave?"

Japan swallowed hard and slowly opened his mouth to say in a tiny voice, "D-Do you k-know me?"

* * *

"You don't remember anything?"

"Iie."

"What's the first thing you _do _remember, aru?"

"Cold. Dark." Japan's brow was scrunched in concentration. "Hurt?"

China grew panicked again.

"Are you hurt, aru?"

Jaan looked at him with child-like eyes.

"I don't know"

They were all on the plane and everyone had let China baby Japan, and ever since China found him in that barn, Japan didn't want to leave his side and constantly hung on to China's sleeve.

Hannah frowned from her lone seat on the plane.

Germany came over and sat down next to her.

"Are you okay?"

Hannah was silent for a moment, then inhaled sharply and turned to face him.

"What was that? All of that, that doppelganger shit. I need to know what I've gotten myself into here."

"Vell, I'm not good at explaining things. You should ask 2pEngland."

Hannah looked at him. "I'm asking you," she murmured.

Germany sighed. "The doppelgangers are from another dimension right next to ours, and the dimension 2pEngland is from is the one directly across from us. They had a disease in their country and their Italy took over, eliminating the weak countries who wouldn't follow him. The rest he tortured into serving him."

Hannah swallowed hard.

"We never knew about the other dimensions until they came over into ours and started kidnapping the countries. We call them the Not-countries, and the 2p countries are from 2pEngland's dimension. We had to go into the Not-countries dimension to get our countries back and we had to kill Not-Italy to get out."

Hannah nodded for him to continue.

"After we got back, we were bombed and forced into hiding. That's when we discovered Not-Italy's second in commend, Not-Canada, was brainwashing our Japan and Kurai, the Japan from the Not-countries, into serving him again. While the two were unconsious, we discovered Not-Iceland had been posing as our Iceland and we set out to Montenegro to destroy Not-Canada's connection through the chip in Japan's neck and to rescue Iceland, and that's where I met you."

Hannah blinked. "And you think you're bad at explaining things. But I get it. So what are we going to do now?"

Germany frowned. "Go home, I guess. China will want to take care of Japan."

"Figures."

Germany glanced at Hannah. "I still don't get it, you said you just 'appeared' there?"

Hannah nodded. "Yes. I have no idea how I got there."

2pEngland came up to them. "Well,I an tell you two one thing. She's not from our dimension."

* * *

"She's from the dimension similar to yours."

"So...what is she doing here?"

2pEngland shrugged. "I have no idea."

Prussia rolled his eyes. "How does this do any good?"

2pEngland shrugged. "I guess it doesn't. Wait. Does any of you have an international phone?"

England took one out of his pocket and handed it over.

"Thanks." 2pEngland went over to a wall and created a glowing square.

"What are you doing?!" Prussia shrieked.

"Calling someone," 2pEngland said. He dialed and brought the phone up to his ear. "America? Yeah, it's me...can you hack into America's government files...yeah...no, project Light...I know I'm not supposed to know about it...uhuh...can you call me back?...sure...what?...really?...yeah, I'm with them now...okay...okay...call me back when you break in."

He hung up to find everyone staring at him.

"What?"

"What was that?" England demanded.

"I called someone who could help."

Prussia blinked twice. "You...called..._America_?"

2pEngland nodded. "Of course. America is the smartest person I know."


	5. Chapter 5

"America is smart in your dimension?"

"Yeah. He hacks into government files with no problem."

"Apparantly his own government's."

"Actually, yes."

"Oh."

"Is is really that big of a surprise given that my dimension is the exact opposite of yours?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"So what else was the call about?"

2pEngland shrugged. "A country fell through into the Not-countries dimension and he had to open up a door and come back, but not much else. Frankly, that's enough info to cause trouble as it is."

England frowned, arms crossed. "What do you mean?"

2pEngland. "I'll tell you if I'm right."

Prussia let out a heavy sigh. "How long will that take?"

The international phone rang and 2pEngland looked at the clock. "Leave it up to America to be on time," he murmured. He opened up the phone.

"Yeah?...shit...I have no idea...no.._no.."_

The countries exchanged glances.

"Are you going to tell everyone?...I can't...because I'm needed here, and if the dimension are-...I do not have a hero complex, that's Canada...I'm serious...I know...but it's better to have people everywhere, then doesn't it?...I can inform you on how everything's going...No, nothing else. Wait, on second thought, can you send the download IQ file to my tracker's hard drive?...I know you will...okay, I'll call you if I need anything else."

Again, the countries stared at him.

"Well, I was right," 2pEngland sighed.

"About what?"

"America's government and mine have been overseeing the stability of the dimensions. It seems, with all the hopping the Not-countries have been doing, it's throwing the whole scale off balance and the dimensions are bleeding together."

Hannah rose from her seat. "So I just fell through?"

"Essentially."

"So what do we do?"

2pEngland looked a little uncomfortable. "My government and several others have come up with a fail-safe plan for if this ever was to happen, but we don't know what it is, and I'm pretty sure America will already be hacking in to get it."

"He never does anything halfway," he said when he recieved a few looks.

"We'll have to go to my dimension, which will most likely be the most stable, since we've been preparing for this. I would recommend landing the plane so we can go through without being in a plane crash at the same time."

Sweden landed the plane and 2pEngland opened up a glowing square again.

"Lead the way," England said.

2pEngland nodded and stepped through, with England supporting America behind him.

Canada went through then Prussia, then Finland, then Sweden, and so on.

When they were all through, they were standing on the coast of Monetnegro.

Suddenly, a plane buzzed overhead.

It landed quite a ways down from them and someone got out of the plane.

"That'll be America," 2pEngland said, raising his arm to wave.

The person, 2pAmerica apparantly, waved back and he neared closer.

"You were tracking me the whole time, weren't you?" 2pEngland asked.

2pAmerica shrugged. "I figured you would have to come back sooner or later."

"True. You really do things to the whole nine yards, don't you?"

"I try."

2pAmerica observed the other countries with bright, intelligent blue eyes.

The eyes squinted slightly and his forehead creased.

"Interesting," he murmured.

"Anyways, we should go." They boarded the plane, which turned out to be the exact one they had just landed.

2pEngland sat down once everyone was settled. "Shoot."

2pAmerica opened his laptop, which was really an invention of it own. There various cords and wires hooked up to different devices and coils of copper wire were wound around the ends of wires a few stuck out from inside the computer frame.

"Whoa," Canada whispered, eyes wide.

"Awesome," Prussia said.

2pAmerica beamed. He spun the laptop around the face the other countries. The screen was filled with ever-changing code and random files popped up and were placed to the side.

"Oh!" America blushed. He minimized the program and turned the computer 'round again. Now it was circles, changing and shaping. The computer beeped and red area popped up here and there. The circle was cut into four pieces but the red spots were everywhere.

"All the red spots are the places where the dimensions are bleeding together and ripping apart. Basically the whole structure is collapsing."

"2pEngland said you're government, along with a handful of others, have a plan to combat this?"

"Yes, that's what the code was."

Prussia huffed. "And now does a bunch of numbers and letters read as a plan?"

"Well, when the dimension sheild powered by the atom carborater goes into a feedback loop whatever defenses this dimensions has will be eliminated. So the plan seems to be that will a rate of a higher IQ the nerves signals can be tranferred into a quantum generator, which are hard to find, mind you, and can trigger the device in a remote location to go into another feedback loop, neutraliazing the quantum field, effectively slowly down the dimension decay rate. After that a tracker with the modification of a chemical based algorithm will be attatched to the quatum generator and the signal will put a barrier over the holes of the other dimensions."

He got blank, weirded out, stares.

"What?"


	6. Chapter 6

"Whoa, wait, what?"

"In order for the nerve signals to go through the input and feedback back to this," 2pAmerica patted his laptop, "Someone who has very little IQ needs to have this," He held up 2pEnglands tracker with a wire attatched and some sort of plug, "downloaded into their brain."

2pAmerica looked at America. "And he's the only option we've got."

England frowned. 'Will it hurt him?"

2pAmerica looked at England. "The download will be painful, but after that, he should be fine."

Hannah eyed 2pAmerica.

"So...he'll be like you?"

2pAmerica immediately shook his head. "No, our outlook will be similar, but we'll still have different personalities."

America shrugged. "Do it, dude."

England gave him a look. "You don't even know what we're talking about!"

America shrugged. "So?"

"Ugh."

England looked back to 2pAmerica. "Fine! It's not up to me, anyway."

2pAmerica exhaled, and took England's spot next to America.

"America, this is a downloadable file. This is going to go into your head. Okay?"

America grinned. "You're really all techno, dude."

England scoffed.

America looked at England, then to 2pAmerica. "Do it."

2pAmerica had a feeling his double actually had an idea as to what was going on.

He hooked up the file so it was ready to download.

He put the plug at the base of America's neck.

"Ready?"

"Yup."

He pressed down and America gritted his teeth, his knuckles white as he gripped the armrests. A low groan escaped his teeth.

2pAmerica's winced in sympathy.

"Okay, step 2. Ready?"

America couldn't say anything, so he just nodded.

2pAmerica pressed the button.

America convulsed and inhaled sharply, his eyes darting around frantically.

Then he let out a sigh and his eyes rolled back into his head right before he sagged.

"Whoa! Hey! What's happening?" England demanded, kneeling in front of America.

"Wait," 2pAmerica breathed, eyes on his double.

America twitched and his eyelids fluttered. Then he opened his eyes. If his eyes were blue before, they were startling now. They were so clear; so _bright_.

He sat up and 2pAmerica disconnected the plug from him.

"Hi, guys," America said sheepishly when no one said anything.

* * *

"So you're okay?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"You didn't seem okay."

"The physical reaction you witnessed only occured because the brain couldn't function normally and take in the download simutaniously."

England crossed his arms.

"It's odd."

America blinked. "I'm sure it must be."

Canada pursed his lips.

2pAmerica slid his laptop towards America.

"So this binary code needs to reach the neural processors."

America nodded. "Which is where the input comes in. But the feedback loop; won't it mess with the algorithm's chemical basecode?"

"No, not unless another neural force uses it's electromagnetic field in the body to push in the iron conduit into the electrical current."

"Ah. But according to this, you don't have a working model."

"We don't have a model at all."

"I see. I assume we're going to need to build one."

"Yeah, but we don't have time for a model-"

"-In light of the binary codes. So straight away, then."

"Yep. As soon as we land, it's straight to the lab. You'll love it. I've got everything."

America grinned.

* * *

"Are you okay, aru?"

Japan nodded.

_W-What...?_

Japan flinched and looked around.

"Nihon? What's wrong?"

"Did...did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Japan stared at China. "N-Nothing."

China frowned. "I'm going to see if I can any info on what's going on, aru."

Japan nodded.

_I don't...I don't understand.._

Japan blinked.

**H-hello?**

_Who are you?_

**I am told my name is Japan.**

_Hakari! It's me. Where are we?_

**I-I'm sorry, I don't know who you are. I don't know where we are, either. A plane, I believe.**

_You..you don't know who I am?_

**No. Though I must admit, this is quite alarming.**

_How?_

**You are...in my head.**

_I...what?_

**You are residing in my mind. I am thinking at this time, not speaking aloud.**

_Oh my...oh. My consiousness in inside your mind. So where is my body?_

Japan swallowed hard.

**Are you Kurai?**

_Yes. You do not know me?_

**I apologize. I have amnesia.**

_Ah. I see. Where is Aniki?_

Japan frowned. **Who?**

_China?_

Japan blinked. **Ah. Which one?**

_Mine. He will most likely be mourning, for I am most likely dead._

**You are.**

_Hmm. Where is China? _

**Yours is looking out the window.**

Japan looked to observe him.

**He does not like looking at me.**

_You remind him of me._

**Oh. I did not realize.**

_What are we going to do? How am I in your mind?_

**I do not know. What do you see?**

_Blackness._

**We should tell the others you are here.**

_...No._

Japan jerked upright.

_It seems I can use your body._


End file.
